beyblade burst surge: episode sixteen
First and foremost, Shu is back! I was initially confused that he wasn’t at the Legend Festival, but I think it makes sense; the cast is packed as is and having Shu there would almost certainly guarantee a big role that the arc simply didn’t have time for. But now that we’re in that weird limbo-transition zone, I can appreciate Shu’s ability to make the characters so much more interesting.
Before I get there, though, Helios Volcano and Hyperion Burn (Helios Burn and Hyperion Volcano? I forget 😣) are super fun to watch in battle. It’s also always good to see Hikaru and Hyuga bounce back from such a momentous loss; while I think that could’ve been a gateway to making them consider why they battle in the first place, it definitely wasn’t necessary and I have faith that their arc will be fulfilling.
We also got a definition for Flare, which is “when your fighting spirit bursts out as a flame.” This is supremely unhelpful. In my opinion, it also raises more questions than it answers: why don’t the legends have Flare? Why is its presence limited to three characters? The legends have plenty of fighting spirit; isn’t that why they’re legends? And what makes Flare different from the weird aura (resonance) characters have been getting since the beginning of the show? Are they, like, different levels of how locked in a character is to a battle? Or is it more of a Venn Diagram? I could be jumping the gun and all of these questions could be answered soon, but in the case that they aren’t, that could be a real problem. Flare is the central mechanic of this season that drives multiple central characters (in my opinion, it does so a little too much).
The main thing that excited me about this episode was seeing Shu’s dynamic with Lain. It’s revealed in this episode that Shu noticed Lain’s Flare and realized it was spiraling out of control, which convinced him to join the Bulls. This did little to stop his power hunger; in fact, after beating Free, it heightened. In episode eight, we see Shu accompanying Lain to challenge Lui to a battle, which is presumably at Lain’s request.
First, I want to talk about what this says about Shu. I mentioned this in my notes, but I think Shu sees Lain as a Red Eye waiting to happen. Following a common trend in the series, as with Boa and Aiga, he’s determined to stop him. I think season five in particular highlights Shu’s toxic savior complex: he feels obligated to “save” a person from a ruin he’s familiar with by any means necessary, even when the person in question doesn’t want his help. Of course, wanting to help people isn’t toxic, but I use that adjective because of a remark Valt makes when a Shu is explaining this.
“And that’s why you brought him to Lui, right?“
The finale of season one broke Shu in a dangerous way, but if he’d had the right support and hadn’t sought out improvement in the Snake Pit and Gilten’s destructive views, it’s likely that Red Eye wouldn’t have come to be. He acknowledged that Lain was past a simple change in outlook: he needed to be broken and rebuilt by the right person. And who is the best at breaking things?
I want to be clear and say that I don’t believe Shu to be a scheming, malevolent mastermind. He’s still a teenager at the time Surge is happening. While this plan definitely has problems, I don’t think it makes Shu a villain; I think it makes him flawed and deeply human. He is a kid who has been forced time and time again to think and act like an adult, and who is trying to prevent a tragedy in the only way he knows how. It’s not like Shu thinks he’s completely in the right, either: he thinks what he’s doing is naïve or arrogant, and asks Valt if he’s wrong for trying to save Lain.
That being said, Shu did bring Lain to Lui operating on the assumption that he would naturally defeat (or even break) Lucius. He broke the first bey in the saga, after all, and even after the character growth Lui has experienced, Shu still thinks he’ll serve the same role in Lain’s eventual redemption as he did in Shu’s. I also think that’s why he simulated Lucius’s defenses to help Valt train. That was probably coupled with the reason that Valt is his closest friend and he genuinely wanted to help, but in general, Shu thought a nice, thorough loss would leave Lain open enough to accept help from Shu.
Unfortunately, that is not how it happened.
In the end, Shu takes it into his own hands to end Lain’s rampage—and he succeeds. Lucius is finished off with a Burst at the end of episode sixteen. When Shu holds out his hand to help Lain up, I thought it was reassuring, but I also thought it was a bit expectant and eager. In my opinion, it sort of mirrors how after Red Eye was defeated and Valt became champion, he offered out his hand and Shu took it gratefully. Lain, however, is not Red Eye, and his Flare grows even more intense with the loss.
I think it’s amazing that they managed to tell us so much about Shu in one episode. It’s clear that he’s intended to be likable, but I appreciate that they could highlight his faults on this front.
I wonder if Lain will evolve Lucius like Hikaru and Hyuga did to Helios and Hyperion. I’m thinking about how this will affect Lain’s role in the series and how he interacts with other characters, and I hope it’s well-developed with the Ultimate Tag Series. My unfiltered notes are below:
